A boy and his sister: Cruelty

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A Boy with a scorch mark along a corner of his forehead huffs and puffs with his breath, carrying an unconscious girl on his back, her head and clothes covered in blood. How did this happen? Why is this boy carrying her down a snowy mountain? 

"Nezuko," He coughs out as he carries her down the mountain, desperately running as he does. 'How did she end up like this? What was that smell?' he tried to keep himself from crying so that he could focus on running. 'She's bleeding a lot, but if I can get her to a doctor I can at least save her!' he looked forward, his eyes filling with the tears he tried so desperately to fight against. "Nezuko, don't die, please don't die." he struggled to keep his footing as he ran in the snow. "Because, because your big brother will definitely save you!" 

~~~~~~~1912--2 days ealier~~~~~~~~~~~

Tanya was getting her uniform on, nearly finished as she buttoned up her top half. She sheathed her blade in its holder and pinned to her hair the yellow butterfly broch. And finally, the white Haori Kyujuro gave her, her eyes strained. They had been seeing each other now for a little over a couple of months. As she placed it on she muttered 'still can't believe that' to herself. While Tanya did not hate it, she was still far off from being used to it. Her first romantic partner was certainly not a man someone would see as a first one, Kyujuro was beaming, energetic, eccentric, and loud. Four things she normally hates, and yet she liked him a lot. Not enough to not yell at him whenever he does it too much, but that was part of the charm. 

She cringed a little when the memory of time freezing the day after it happened, and Being Z yelling and saying cute it was. Giving Tanya suggestions and talking for what felt like hours about it, for once, she agreed with Being X that it was annoying and both of them basically played tic-tac-toe in her mind while Being Z went off on her tangent about romanticism. It went on long enough for Tanya to win twelve of fifteen games against Being X. which in it itself made the experience worth it. For once though Being X did not seem to care Tanya had bested him, Being X just seemed glad it distracted him enough from Being Z's rambles. 

"I do sorta regret that I fell asleep on his shoulders though." Tanya sighed, already well aware her cheeks went a little pink at the memory. She does not hate the moment, but rather what came afterward. After her own confession in response to Kyujuro's one, Tanya had fallen asleep on him as he walked down the hill. He had held her in her arms and shoulders throughout the whole fireworks display, but he did not mind. Unfortunately, he ran into Viktoriya and the others, and the always enthusiastic Kyujuro spilled the beans without any interrogation. She could have prevented that if she was awake! As well as have prevented the following screech of excitement Mitsuri gave after seeing how cute their 'love' was. Everyone's poor ears. 

After she was done she walked outside the room, she had promised to train Kanao today, so she would. 

Tanya clapped as she watched Kanao slash through a third wooden training pillar. "Perfect, you've found the correct spot to slash with your sword." Kanao nodded, with Tanya having drilled into her mind to also cut with the sharp edge of the sword, or else she risked breaking it. Shinobu was still Kanao's master, but Tanya helped from time to time, mostly with sword techniques and training, since, unlike Shinobu, she did not have to rely on wisteria poison to kill a demon. So she was better to train Kanao in that regard since the usually silent girl could still cut through the hardwood. 

Tanya held up a wooden sword, "now come at me with that in mind, if you can cut through this I'll consider it a pass. Oh, and remember to use the breathing technique this time." she said the last part because Kanao had been using the gourds to train her concentration breathing. Kanao seems apprehensive, worried since she has a real sword while Tanya is using a training one. Tanya grins "What the matter? If you take out your coin to decide if you should attack me or not I'll attack before it even hits the ground." The silent girl visibly sweated, Tanya knew she was being harsh, but no one else was making an effort to teach Kanao decision-making skills!

Kanao, based on that Tanya told her to attack would take it as an order and run at Tanya with her sword raised to her side. She swung at Tanya. "Wrong." Tanya easily knocked away the sword with her wooden one then knocked Kanao away. The girl winced "You left too big of an opening with breathing, you need to remember to not separate the two." Kanao nodded, standing back up. Tanya grinned, she oddly had missed training people, luckily for Kanao, this was not a setting where she could train people the way she used to. The same set of events would carry out for almost an hour, Kanao would unknowingly leave an opening, Tanya would hit her hard with the wooden sword, and repeat. 

Eventually, though Shinobu would walk out "WELL! Why don't you two stop for now? Kanao, go inside and get…patched up." She said with a vein-popping by her head, trying her best to keep her smile and not glare at Tanya. "Okay master." Kanao would go inside, covered in bruises. But she would turn back "See you next time Nee-san" She shouted at Tanya before she was gone. Shinobu would approach Tanya after she put away the sword "I am not apologizing, this is how I teach Shinobu." the purple-haired girl nodded "yeah I know, I actually came to ask you to go on a mission." 

Shinobu pointed over by the gate, where Giyu was waiting. "Seems Giyu has gotten another mission with me. But we just got a load of patients that I need to attend to." Tanya sighed "well I am sure he does not need you or me to go with him. You two go on way to many missions together anyways." Shinobu giggled as this was indeed true. "Yes, and you'll be shocked how socially inept he is. Which is why someone should go with him." Tanya looked back at her adoptive older sister, raising an eyebrow. Shinobu raised one back, and in a teasing tone said "You know, if you retire to marry Kyujuro I would not be able to ask you to do any mission~" 

Tanya physically grimaced, that was not the first time she made a teasing line like that. She found out from Mitsuri, who of course told everyone! While retiring from marriage would have been something she would have taken in her second life, in her third she did not have time! She had told Kyujuro the very next day after both their confessions that she had zero intention of retiring from being a demon slayer for him. To which he quote said "OF COURSE! Why would I want a talented swordswoman like yourself removed from our ranks!" She gave a heavy sigh "fine, I'll go." Shinobu smiled wider "thank you Tanya." and she then went back inside to tend to the patients she had mentioned. 

Tanya would walk up to Giyu. "Hey, Tomioka" Giyu looked down at her "hey, where is your sister? Kocho?" the girl pointed behind her at the home. "Taking care of patients. She told me to go with you." Giyu gave a small nod, seemingly not caring. "Shall we be off?" Tanya blinked 'that's it? Guess he doesn't mind who goes with him but at least ask a little more than that!' she sighed, at least it cut her time in half from explaining anything. And so the two would run off, Giyu explaining where a demon was spotted.

~~~~~~~~~present day-ealier~~~~~~

"Tanjiro." A female voice would say to a boy with his hair tied into a little ponytail, face covered in soot. "Your face is all black, come here." Tanjiro would walk over, his mother would wipe his face. "You know you don't have to go, the snow makes it more dangerous to head down the mountain." Tanjiro smiled as his mother wiped his face "it's alright, it is almost new years and I want everyone to eat as much as they can. So I will sell as much charcoal as I can to make that happen." His mother smiled back at him "thank you." 

"Tanjiro, you're going to the village today?" a younger Kamodo child, Shigeru said with glee. "I want to go as well!" a young girl, Hanako said. The Kamodo matriarch would stand up "absolutely not. It is snowing so he cannot take the cart today, so he won't be able to carry you both back up when you get tired." both children seemed upset that they could not go, Shigeru hugged Tanjiro close. The eldest looked over at his other brother who was carrying an Axe "Hey Takeo, if you don't mind can you chop as much wood as you can today?" Takeo would huff and looked away "yeah I was going to do that anyway, I just wanted to do it together." Tanjiro grinned and patted Takeo on the head. 

As he waved goodbye to them, he walked to his younger sister, Nezuko. "Nezuko, I'm off to sell more charcoal." she nodded "I just put Rokuta to sleep." she looks back at the sleeping boy on her back. "Ever since dad died he's been glued to you Tanjiro, I think everyone has," Nezuko said with a smile. Tanjiro patted the sleeping boy on the head. As Tanjiro left his younger sister would say "take care, we will see you when you get back." Tanjiro made his way down the mountain, carrying the basket full of coal on his back. 'Life is not always easy for us, but every day is a blessing.' 

After he got to the village he was greeted by a lady sweeping away dust on the street "well if it isn't Tanjiro. Did you really climb all the way down the mountain? Goodness, you will catch a cold." Tanjiro gave a reassuring smile "oh I'll be alright. Did you want to buy some charcoal miss?" he suddenly heard from above him "hey Tanjiro, thanks for helping to fix my sliding door." Tanjiro waved up at him "it was no trouble." and coming out of a store a man would say "Hey Tanjiro I'll take some charcoal!" 

Tanjiro was busy that day, having to clear up a screaming man who asked for his help in clearing his name for a restaurant owner who thought he broke plates. Tanjiro's sense of smell indicated cats were the real culprit. He took the whole day to sell the entire basket of charcoal, but he had done it. The sun had set, but he stared at the empty basket "wow I managed to sell out!" he looked up, nearly to the base of the mountain. "It's getting late, I should head back, the others are probably worried by now." 

Suddenly he heard someone shout from behind him "Hey Tanjiro, are you heading up the mountain now? It's dangerous at night!" Tanjiro looked back to see a man, Saburo staring at him from out his window. "Oh it's alright, I have a great sense of smell. I'll be fine." Saburo shook his head "don't be ridiculous, you can stay the night here. Now come." Tanjiro gave a nervous smile "thank you but-" he was cut off by the man saying "enough, demons will come out soon." 

A little while later Tanjiro was finishing up the food Saburo had provided for him. "Thank you for the food. But what are these demons you mentioned?" the man closed some umbrellas he had out. "For a long time, human-eating demons prowl around at night. It's why it is dangerous to wander up the mountain by yourself at night. They could get you easily and eat you. Which is why it is safer if you stay here for the night." As he went to lay down Tanjiro would ask "the demons, can they get inside?" Saburo nodded "yes if they wanted to they could come inside without trouble." he would puff out some smoke from a pipe he had. "Which is why the great spirit hunters will kill the Demons for us." 

Tanjiro closed his eyes, thinking to himself as he slowly drifted off to sleep. 'Poor mr. Saburo must be lonely ever since his family died. Next time I'll be sure to bring my brothers and sisters along to keep him company. It is fine, demons don't exist…' as his mind drifted off to complete sleep he thought to himself as he pictured an old woman that was his grandmother 'our grandmother used to say the same thing before she died as well.' 

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Tanjiro had said his goodbyes to Saburo before heading back up the mountain, it was cloudy and the snow was still coming down. 

When tragedy strikes and happiness is broken, it is always followed by the smell of blood.

"H-huh. What?!" Tanjiro dropped the basket, as the scene he saw the moment he made it back to his house was Nezuko covered in blood, holding onto Rokuta. He ran up quickly with worry lines covering his face. He sat down and held his hand onto Nezuko "what is this? How did this happen?!" he looked over inside the house and saw a gruesome scene that only added to the horrors of the first. Everyone, his entire family, lay dead, covered in blood inside his home where just yesterday he had seen them smiling when he left. "Mother, Hanako, Takeo, Shigeru, Nezuko, Rokuta…' he muttered to himself. 

Now he was desperately running down the mountain again, carrying Nezuko who was still bleeding. 'Only Nezuko is still warm, if I can get her to a doctor I should at least be able to save her!' as he huffed and ran he wondered to himself how it happened, how did his family die? 'Did a bear try to find a warm place to hibernate?' he tried to make sense, coughing and just barely keeping his footing. 'It's painful to breathe, the cold air is hurting my lungs. But I can't stop, I have to keep moving. We are still to far away from the village for any of them to hear me shout. Just keep moving!' Nezuko's body suddenly started to move, but Tanjiro did not notice. "You're older brother will definitely save you!"

"GAhhhh!" Nezuko suddenly screamed out, fangs now appearing in her mouth. Tanjiro turned at the sudden scream, losing his footing and falling down a small cliff in the mountain. 'Oh no I slipped!' as he fell, nezuko suddenly grabbed him and tackled him to the ground they were already falling towards. When they landed his fall was broken by the snow, but he saw Nezuko who had pinned him. He saw her eyes filled with bloodlust, he could smell it as well. Just as she went for a bite, he managed to grab his hatchet and get her to bite down on it instead. 

"Nezuko?! What is going on?!" he shouted, as he stared, he remembered how while they were eating Saburo explained what demons look like. Her fangs, her eyes, her claws. 'Nezuko is a human-eating demon? No Nezuko is human! She's always been human!' he held off her attempt to make him her food. 'That smell, it was different. That means Nezuko did not do this. The way I found her, she was protecting Rokuta.' Nezuko growled and chomped more. Her body suddenly started getting bigger, her claws grasped his clothes more, and she was pushing his hatchet down 'h-her body is getting bigger, and her strength is increasing!' 

As he held her off Tanjiro would think. 'Nezuko, I'm so sorry. While I was sleeping comfortably you and the others were suffering.' his eyes filled with grief and regret, as tears fell down. 'I am so sorry I was not able to save you and the others. But…at least I can help her. In whatever way I can.' as Nezuko got closer and pushed his hatchet closer to his neck, Tanjiro shouted out. "NEZUKO!" as loudly as he possibly could before continuing. "You have to fight this, try your best to hold it off! Somehow, you turned into a demon, but you have to pull yourself together. I believe in you Nezuko!" suddenly, tears filled Nezuko's eyes. He saw in full view while she was still chewing on the handle of the hatchet. 

Tanjiro's eyes opened wide, as he pushed Nezuko out of the way of an incoming attack by rolling away while holding her. 'Who is that?' he looked over, and saw a man with an oddly colored Haori standing where Nezuko had been trying to attack him, he was holding a katana of some kind. "Why did you protect it?" the man spoke bluntly and without much emotion in his voice. "S-She's my younger sister!" Tanjiro managed to sputter out as he held Nezuko who struggled in his hold and snarled at the man. The man's eyes barely softened at all "is that thing really your sister?" without another word the man ran at Tanjiro, who went to protect his sister by using his own body. But she was suddenly out of his hold. "What?" he looked over and saw the man grasping Nezuko's arms behind her back as she growled and tried to get free of his hold. 

Meanwhile, Tanya huffed out of cold air, a small visible cloud escaping her mouth. "Damn it, Tomioka doesn't know what the words 'wait up' mean apparently," she muttered under her breath. She heard shouting not too far away, when she got passed a few trees, she hid behind one. She saw Giyu holding a girl she could tell was a demon from how she looked. Tanya looked over and saw the boy, he looked desperate. 'Why hasn't Giyu beheaded it already? That demon is probably a family member, I should wait around in case the boy tries anything.' she could tell by the desperation on his face he would try anything to protect the demon girl Giyu was holding. 

"Don't move," Giyu said to Tanjiro, who stood in place but shook. "It is my job to kill these demons. And so I will with this one as well," he spoke coldly. "Please wait!" Tanjiro shouted out as Giyu lifted his blade, "Nezuko hasn't killed anyone! At our house, there was another scent. One I had never smelled before. It came from whatever killed my family, it could not have been Nezuko! She's acting differently than usual, I don't know why though." Giyu's eye furrowed for a moment "if you get demon blood, even inside an open wound you become a demon. That is how they multiply their numbers." 

Tanjiro gripped his own hand tight. "Nezuko hasn't hurt or eaten anyone!" Giyu stares intently "if I had not shown up you would have been her first!" Tanjiro matched his stare "You don't know that for sure! She was stopping!" he put his hand by his chest "I won't let her harm anyone! I will turn Nezuko back into a human!" Giyu's eyebrows lowered, he was starting to get annoyed. "There is no cure, there is no way for a demon to turn back into a human." Tanjiro would desperately shout out "I will find a cure! And I will find the demon who killed my family!" He started lowering his body "so please, don't kill Nezuko" he thought of his family 'everything else was taken from me.' he bowed his head at Giyu, fully laying her body to the ground "I beg you!" 

Giyu was angry now. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" he shouted out in frustration. "Stop your squatting, it is reasons like this your family is dead. Why I am holding your sister!" Tanjiro sat there stunned, for a second he sniffed the air, and his eyes widened. "In the time it took for you to beg me to spare her life you could have picked out your hatchet and tried to stop me!" Giyu sneers at the boy "Find a cure? That is Utterly ridiculous!" he gripped his sword tightly "for the weak, you can't protect or save anyone! Maybe there is a way to cure a demon, I doubt any demon who knows it would be willing to tell you!" 

he pointed his sword at Tanjiro "don't show me your back, don't leave yourself open! Would you have done that while I cut her head off?" Giyu watched as tears filled the boy's eyes, and he thought 'don't cry, don't do those things now, I know its hard, your family was killed and your sister is now a demon I apologize that we had shown up late if I did not your family would probably still be alive. But I cannot fix the past. But frail resolutions will not save your sister, it will not cure her, and it won't bring your family back.' 

Giyu raised his sword and stabbed it into Nezuko's shoulder. "Ahhhh!" the demon girl shouted out in pain. Tanjiro suddenly picked up a pebble and tossed it at Giyu, who deflected it away with his sword handle. Tanjiro would then pick up his hatchet and start running behind the trees. As he did he tossed another pebble which Giyu moved his head to dodge. Tanjiro started running at him with his hatchet in hand. 'A simple attack. Such a fool.' Giyu did not even need to hit Tanjiro with his sword handle, as Tanya suddenly jumped out and knocked the boy out with one hard kick to the back of his head. Tanjiro fell down, unconscious. Nezuko stared at her brother in shock. 

Tanya sighed, flicking her hair away. "So much drama Tomioka, you could have just killed the demon. There was no need to push him that far," she spoke simply, as she figured the boy would get angry and attack Giyu anyways. 'Never seen him this angry before, Shinobu will have a field day when I tell her about this.' Giyu nodded, "I suppose I-" he noticed that there was no hatchet laying beside Tanjiro. He suddenly tilted his head, as a hatchet nearly cut his face off. "Huh?!" Tanya shouted, as she only just noticed a second after it happened. 

Giyu's eyes widened, as he realized what Tanjiro had done. 'First, he threw the second pebble up, and the hatchet at the same time. He knew my attention would be on the pebble. He then ran at me, making it look like he was still wielding his weapon. He tried to bring me down after I knocked him out.' he stared down at the unconscious boy. Tanya did the same "that was close. The boy has some great instincts. But how did he notice me? His eyes widened when I got closer." Tanya said as she rubbed her hair. Giyu spoke, some shock still in his voice. "The boy has a great sense of smell." 

Suddenly the demon girl kicked Giyu away. "Crap!" Tanya says as they both watch as Nezuko goes for Tanjiro's unconscious body. 'She's going to eat him!' Giyu thought. "We gotta stop her." Tanya drew her sword, about to move forward but both she and Giyu watched in equal shock. Nezuko instead of attacking the unconscious Tanjiro, stood in front of him, holding her arms out as if to protect him. They thought of the words Tanjiro had shouted out during his desperate pleas 'Nezuko does not eat people!' Giyu's eyes softened 'A long time ago, there was someone who said that a starving demon would eat even their family, parents, siblings, all fair game.' 

Tanya was not sure what to do, she was surprised sure but the demon girl could still attack the boy or them. She looked Nezuko over 'she is wounded, and yet it's not healing just yet. If she is a new demon, she is probably using all her energy to adjust to it, and likely already used a lot when she did transform.' suddenly Nezuko would lunge at Tanya, seeing her as the immediate threat as she was the one that knocked out her brother. Tanya prepared to cut the neck, but Giyu then got close and chopped the back of the demon girl's neck with his hand, she was instantly knocked out. 

Tanya stared at him, watching as he stood in front of the demon girl. "what are you doing? Don't tell me that boy actually got to you." she said with her sword still out. "Kocho, I know that it is crazy, but even you must admit what we have just seen is an oddity." Tanya's eyes narrowed, the only time she has heard of a demon not attacking a human is when that one demon told Mary about Zettour's weakness. But even then it was only done because he hated Zettour. She's never seen a demon protect a human before. 

Tanya stared at both the unconscious boy and his sister. Giyu would then say "you don't have to admit that you helped me if anyone ever finds out. But please, trust me." Tanya did not know Giyu very well, she just knew him as that emotionless guy who often is on missions with Shinobu and trained with Granz. But, of course, a flash of Rengoku appeared in her mind, if he were here, having seen what she has seen, he would trust Giyu. 

she sheathed her blade. "Now what?"